Clear Tune Monitors CT-500 Elite Review & Appreciation Thread

I'll begin this review by telling you a little about my audio biases. My first love is not portable audio (though this is changing); I prefer big speakers properly arrayed for surround sound paired with a hefty subwoofer capable of moving a lot of air. Alas my current living conditions as well as an increasing amount of time spent travelling have pushed me in the direction of something smaller and more practical. Though I've heard some nice over ear and on ear cans I prefer the form factor, size and aesthetic of canal phones. For me IEMs do several things well; one is to present music intimately and the other is to offer up detail and clarity that add new dimensions to my favourite songs. Up until recently I've been dabbling in the universal IEM market and I've come to realize that everything I've heard/own is a series of compromises. The Etymtoic HF2 is very intimate and detailed but not very dynamic and lacking a little in the low end. The Re-262 has some nice mids but the bottom and the top just aren't there for me. The Rockit R-50 has clarity but is far from comfortable and doesn't take long to create listening fatigue. The DT-1350 (yes, these are on ears) provide a very tight detailed low end but don't connect me emotionally with my music. I knew something was missing so I started researching on Head Fi and other sites, the threads about custom IEMs immediately grabbed my attention, partly for the promise of better sound and partly for more comfort (surely something had to be better than comply tips). I read many reviews and called several IEM companies eventually settling on Clear Tune Monitors.

Clear Tune Monitors is run out of Florida where their CIEMS are created. The head of operations is Cesar who was extremely responsive offering up a consistently satisfying customer experience such as I've rarely experienced. This in large part fuelled my decision to go with CTM (positive reviews of the CT-200 and the knowledge that I was dealing with musicians as well as competetive pricing also contributed). I was a little hesitant because there wasn't a review of the CT-500 available but I rationalized that if the dual driver CT-200 could create an impressive amount of positive reactions surely CTM would rock my world with five balanced armatures. To cut to the the chase, I was right.

From the Clear Tunes web site, the details:

Description

CT-500 Elite:It is an exquisite monitor, utilizing a quintuple driver system and a three independent tube system. The passive crossover separates the music five ways: lows, mid-lows, mids, mid-highs, and highs. The CT-500 Elite provides the fullest range of sound with the most clarity and least amount of distortion.

Specifications

Acryllic shell

Various Color

Various ColorInput Sensitivity: 115.6 dB @ 1 kHz, 50mV

Efficiency: 120.0 dB @ 1mW

Freq Response: 20 Hz to 18,000 Hz

Speaker : 5 precision balanced armatures drivers

Impedance: 20 ohms @ 1kHzz

Noise Isolation: -26dB

Input connector: 1/8/in gold plug

Now my take on the product itself.

Build Quality: Is very, very good. The shells are smooth and finished nicely without obvious bubbles in the acryllic [pictures to be added later]. My art is less that satisfying but I believe this is largely my fault as I didn't provide an adequate source.

Comfort: Straight up, for me the CT-500 are infinitely more comfortable than any other IEM I've worn. In the past I've had to remove IEMs after 3 or 4 hours as they grew increasingly less comfortable over time, often becoming irritating. I've now suffered through a very long flight with my CT-500, having them in my ears for over 7 hours at a time with no discomfort. Better still, they're easy to twist in and out allowing me to talk to the stewardess without later having to fumble and compress foam to cram my IEMS back in (I'm looking at you Etymotic with comply tips). It's like a key in a lock and if you're a frequent flier I highly recomend the experience.

Isolation: Is excellent and from what I've read this is normal for CIEMS. Etymotics (and perhaps Shures with olive tips) can better the isolation of the CT-500 but at the expense of comfort.

Sound Quality: I'll break it down further in additional paragraphs but lets start with 'wow!' Finally I don't feel like I'm compromising. Clarity is amazing, detail is fantastic. As an example songs with lyrics I've heard many times are suddenly clear and I've realized that I'd gotten those lyrics wrong in the past. The music is entirely coherent while remaining emotional. You can focus on one instrument or aural detail then shift your attention to another but never lose sight of the song as a whole. Clear Tune Monitors lives up to it's name. Every frequency has room to breathe and is tight and controlled not leaking into one another. For me the ultimate IEM sin is a tubby loose bass that seeps into the mids; that never happens here.

Soundstage: I'll be honest with you. I've read a lot of reviews of IEMs mentioning this feature but I hadn't actually experienced it before. I'd read a paragraph about soundstage thinking: "Maybe I can't hear it because for me soundstage is about having multiple speakers in a surround setup, a stereo set of IEMs can be intimate but it can't offer detailed positional information about sounds and instruments." Suprisingly for me it can. The CT-500 presents a nicely 3D soundstage that varies in size and depth depending upon the source material. Compared to universal IEMs I've heard it's a night and day comparison.

Bass: Here's where another aural bias of mine is strongly felt. Real bass can only be created by moving a lot of air. For me this is still true but with a caveat: The CT-500 creates bass that is accurate and possesses dramatic dynamics. Timbre is excellent and the bass is extremely tight but not overpowering (note I listen to a lot of EDM and trance). If you are a 'basshead' (which I define as someone who wants bass to overpower everything else) the CTM-500 are not for you.

Midrange: I adore great vocals and I believe a lot of music lives in the mids. The CTM-500 sound a little forward here; again this varies from song to song but mids are always very clear and detailed while vocals (one of my favorite instruments) sound natural and carry the emotional weight I expect.

Treble: This is treble done right. Everything is there without becoming fatiguing, a problem I've had when I've listened to very bright IEMs. There is air and sparkle but it's not overdone.

I'm not a music producer or sound engineer. I have dabbled briefly in the field years ago taking a few courses on music production and mixing. It's obvious to me that the clarity, honesty and detail demonstrated by the CTM-500 would make them ideal monitors in a studio setting. As an audiophile looking to enjoy and get as much as possible from my music I also find the CTM-500 extremely satisfying, on par with decent speaker systems I've heard by Mirage, Paradigm, Dynaudio and KEF.

Secondary Information:

The music used for this review came from CDs, FLACS and 320kbps MP3s. The majority was EDM, vocal trance, techno, dance et al. But I also listened to some classical (I'm no expert) Celtic folk, Latin styles (merengue, bachata), pop, disco and movie soundtracks.

Equipment used:

Sansa Clip Zip: The Clip can drive the CT-500 but nowhere close to their full abilities. With no additional amplification the CT-500 sounded great out of the Clip still besting the universals I've heard. Adding a Fireye Mini amp to the chain made everything sound a lot better.

Fiio E-17 Alpen: At the moment this is my best amplifier (I know, I know, I'm working on it) and the CT-500 scaled up admirably when paired with this device improving dramatically in all aspects (notably firmer bass and clearer highs).

In the future I'll doubtless invest in additional amps/dacs and another custom or two. When that happens I'll try to update this review so it contains a more experienced CIEM perspective. For the moment my sole CIEM is the CT-500 and I'm very satisfied with my investment.

So this CIEM is a 5-way crossover. to my knowledge there are only two other 5-way crossovers, the SE5-way from spiral ear and the NT6 PRO. Very interesting. I would love to know how they compare to other high-end CIEMs.

That's because the Nexus 7 has insanely high (~100 ohm) output impedance. Those BA drivers will be underdamped like nothing else. If the CT-500 has a TWFK driver inside, electrical underdamping will drive the lower and higher frequencies outputted by the TWFK apart because of that driver's polarity characteristics. So yes, the Clip Zip and Fireye Mini will be better options than straight from the Nexus 7.

That's because the Nexus 7 has insanely high (~100 ohm) output impedance. Those BA drivers will be underdamped like nothing else. If the CT-500 has a TWFK driver inside, electrical underdamping will drive the lower and higher frequencies outputted by the TWFK apart because of that driver's polarity characteristics. So yes, the Clip Zip and Fireye Mini will be better options than straight from the Nexus 7.

That makes sense; thanks for the explanation.

I do believe that the CT-500 will benefit further from a higher quality amp/dac. In the future when I'm back in North America I'll pick up a Meridian Explorer or something similar. In the meantime the Fiio Alpen does a respectable job.

Just saw your picture; no TWFK... looks like two ED or Sonion 2300 (2389, 2323) series for the tweeters, a dual driver like a Sonion 38AM or 33A, or DTEC, and a Sonion 2015 (not a CI) for the lows. Pretty good configuration there; if I had to guess, they probably went with all Sonion. This thing should sound pretty good, but will be insanely sensitive (must be at least 120 dB). Oh, and it should have at least a mild bit of mid-bass emphasis; I'm sure they wouldn't let it leak into the mids, but there should be a decent bit of mid-bass.

Just saw your picture; no TWFK... looks like two ED or Sonion 2300 (2389, 2323) series for the tweeters, a dual driver like a Sonion 38AM or 33A, or DTEC, and a Sonion 2015 (not a CI) for the lows. Pretty good configuration there; if I had to guess, they probably went with all Sonion. This thing should sound pretty good, but will be insanely sensitive (must be at least 120 dB). Oh, and it should have at least a mild bit of mid-bass emphasis; I'm sure they wouldn't let it leak into the mids, but there should be a decent bit of mid-bass.

Your knowledge of BA drivers far surpasses my own. I'm glad there's no TWFK driver involved as my previous encounters with it are in two sets of IEMs I found overly bright.

My subjective impression is that the CT-500 sounds amazing. Mids are pulled a little forward and bass is punchy but I don't hear a mid bass emphasis or any frequency bleed. I'm most pleased with the clarity and musicality of the CIEM. Previously I enjoyed my Etymotic HF2 but they do seem to 'cut and paste' sounds while clarity was a touch artificial (and much less) relative to the CT-500 (of course the price difference is equally radical).

Well, the high driver of the TWFK tends to have a resonant mode around 6-8k that's difficult to get rid of. Inside CIEMs, because there are multiple drivers, the SPL of the TWFK is relatively lower than that of others', so the resonant peak may possibly not be as prominent. If it were a TWFK used by itself, then it'd be easily noticeable. Punchy bass = mid-bass presence; if the bass shelf were completely flat, even with elevated levels, it'd sound a little weak. But whatever --- you seem to really enjoy the CT-500, and that's all that matters. I'm doing all this analysis just as a personal exercise.

Well, the high driver of the TWFK tends to have a resonant mode around 6-8k that's difficult to get rid of. Inside CIEMs, because there are multiple drivers, the SPL of the TWFK is relatively lower than that of others', so the resonant peak may possibly not be as prominent. If it were a TWFK used by itself, then it'd be easily noticeable. Punchy bass = mid-bass presence; if the bass shelf were completely flat, even with elevated levels, it'd sound a little weak. But whatever --- you seem to really enjoy the CT-500, and that's all that matters. I'm doing all this analysis just as a personal exercise.

I appreciate the analysis; you're providing me some greater insight into the nature of CIEM tuning. Yes, the bass is fast and punchy sounding very dynamic so I guess there is a mid bass presence. It works very well for EDM.

Here to appreciate these after CanJam 2014. I went to CanJam this year with CIEMs on my radar, and after sampling just about every vendor there, CTM ended up winning out for me: a balance between performance and price. If price were no object, I'd be buying Noble...and some day I will.

But I'm pretty jazzed to have put in my order for CT-500 Elites last week and am patiently waiting for them to arrive in a month or so.

These landed yesterday. Initial impressions: they sound as good as I remember them from CanJam. Marked improvement in sound over my Shure 535s across the entire spectrum. Will spend more time with them over the Thanksgiving holiday and write a proper review. At this point, though, I'm really loving 'em.

Will see if I can get some better photos that show the artwork as well. I went with a light blue translucent shell, darker translucent blue faceplate, the logo of one of my favorite artists, and CTM's silver cables. I was after subtlety and CTM delivered.

These landed yesterday. Initial impressions: they sound as good as I remember them from CanJam. Marked improvement in sound over my Shure 535s across the entire spectrum. Will spend more time with them over the Thanksgiving holiday and write a proper review. At this point, though, I'm really loving 'em.

Will see if I can get some better photos that show the artwork as well. I went with a light blue translucent shell, darker translucent blue faceplate, the logo of one of my favorite artists, and CTM's silver cables. I was after subtlety and CTM delivered.

The CTM-500 handle Aphex Twin really well. A track I like to hear on my CIEMs is Juno Reactor's 'Navras', give it a go and make those 5 BAs work.